Search the Community

Hi Guys, Me a new member.I have been researching on macro-micro reginal cuisines of India.How many types of cuisine does Bengal or for that matter Bangla have?(Ghoti and Bangal types r at a general level but what abut regional level cuisines?)

Okay -- so my friend called last night. She wanted to make sure that I had hung a lemon along with some dried chilies at the entrance of our house. "It will keep the house safe from the evil eye"... hmmmm! My hubby's grandmother, when she visits, does something similar as well. She willhold dried red chilies in her hand and then wave it over our son's head to ward of evil..... I have wondered what the significance of those foods is... Do you have tales likes these? Do you know where these traditions stem from? What about other cultures? Do you have something similar? (Garlic keeps vampires away??)

Soft or slightly chewy? Smooth or granular? Sour or mild?

i've made a couple of batches of cow ghee recently, and in my research i came across the fact that historically ghee was only made from the milk of the water buffalo. (such sweet tempered creatures!) i've learned that buffalo ghee has less of the yellow pigment carotene in it, producing a "whiter" cooking oil and that the cream of the water buffalo has a higher fat content than the cream of a cow. of course, the unheralded success of mozzarella di bufala adds some intrigue to my question: are there differences in flavor and texture? sadly, i don't live in proximity to a water buffalo. and though i've discovered that i might purchase a texan male for $1,000, or a texan lady for $2,000, i'm not ready to commit without your advice.

Moving the Swati Snacks thread here since we were really straining the tea thread. Here's the article I wrote on the place after interviewing Asha Jhaveri, its very reticent owner. It was one of those rather frustrating interviews where you'd ask a long question and she would just reply 'yes' or 'no' - not from unfriendliness, that's just the way she is. One thing I didn't mention in the article is why she's able to run the restaurant the way she does - she's apparently from a fairly well off Palanpuri Jain (meaning diamond trading) family, so its not like this is the main source of income. Shortly after I wrote the article though, she finally did give in to the pressure and has just opened a restaurant in Ahmedabad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the quality doesn't fall now. Vikram

Okay, so I realize there must be some cultural or religious significance to this, but I don't understand why a lot of Indian food is heavily pigmented or colored. For example, the bright red Tandoori chicken in Indian buffets that we all know and love -- and carrot puddings with that nuclear waste orange color that only comes from heavy food coloring. What gives? Any other examples?

This thread is inspired by Best Indian food movies I thought it would be fun to cast and direct our own little Indian food movie. I have no idea how this will work.. but Mira Nair move over.. eGers are here.... Someone start a story and we will take it from there.....

The thread on food in Indian movies prompted a comment or two on Indian food in books, so let's do a thread on that, too. Both are of interest to me. Here I am asking for novels, memoirs, travel books and such that depict Indian foodways as an important part of the book, rather than cookbooks as such.

Has got to be one of my favorite dishes. Shrimp is marinated in a ginger garlic paste, a bit of salt, red chili powder, turmeric and a touch of tandoori spice mix. Grilled in the broiler. Easy as can be. I am learning to take pictures so bear with me! We had this a few nights ago for dinner. What you see in the back is a papaya salad I made with cilantro lime dressing and some crushed red pepper What recipes do others use for making a simple grilled shrimp dish??

The other day I was hankering for some Langhar food and thought I'd cook some Maa ki dal with 25% Rajma, which I soaked together overnight. The next day I didn't use a pressure cooker, instead cooked them Dum ( Slow) for lunch. They turned out quite nice and if I would have added more Cream and Ghee, Bukhara's chefs would have some sleepless nights. That night I couldnt sleep because I had abdominal distension and severe griping pain. I learnt the hard way, so avoid cooking such WMDs at low temperature because this is probably the cause Ooooh!.

We have a great eGullet forum on India and Indian Cuisine, with an incredible amount of information on cookbooks, favorite dishes, and styles of cooking from various regions, and much more. Suvir Suran did a great job as forum host before opening Amma in Manhattan to great acclaim. Now Monica Behide is the new forum host, and she welcomes all of us from Texas to visit. So it would be helpful to know more about all the Indian markets in Texas, especially DFW-Denton, Houston-Galveston, Austin and San Antonio. What are the favorite Indian markets in your area? Any special products or ingredients they carry that you have had a hard time finding in other places? How's quality, and how's the service?

I'd like to think I know a bit about English, Japanese and Chinese tea varietals, but I really don't know my Assam from my Darjeeling. Can anyone elaborate what all the major Indian tea varietals are, how they are prepared, what teas go best with what kind of Indian food and what are the best times of day (and time of year) to drink them? And besides the classic English way of serving tea, are there any Indian-specific tea customs I should know about? And what goes into a "masala" tea?

I was at a meeting recently with a very influential book editor recently. "Indian food is really heating up," I tell her and swear up and down about it. I quoted six trends, seven hot new restaurants, celebrity chefs, emails from The Food Channel Trendwire saying that its here. The editor looked at me and said -- well you may be right but I have heard this same story in 1998. Is it really happening this time So is it??

As the weather gets warmer here I am starting to crave cold drinks. Out with the sodas and in with the divine.. Do you have some favorites that you can share? I love to make a saffron hued lemonade and this afternoon served Indian style cold coffee (I cheated today -- usually I use Nescafe Instant coffee, ice and milk -- today it was Starbucks Coffee icecream with cold milk and crushed ice). Ofcourse one of my favorite Indian restaurants in town serves up the best Tamarind Margaritas... so whats on your drink menu ???

this thread is inspired by a comment vikram made in another thread. to wit: and also follows from my recommendation, in various threads, of the crab butter-pepper-garlic at the restaurant swaagath in new delhi--most recently, talked about here. so, here's my questions: 1. is vikram right? do most indian recipes kill crab? 2. what are the antecedents of the butter-pepper-garlic preparation? i have an answer for question 1, and here it is: i disagree--i don't think most indian recipes kill the taste of crab. i think it is a question of how you come to what the definitive crab taste-experience is supposed to be. as someone all of whose early exposure to crab was through bengali freshwater "kankra" curries i've always been underwhelmed by the (american?) approach to crab of just steaming it and eating it with butter. crab for me is best when a recipe preserves its cool texture and aroma but places it in a seemingly antithetical spicy environment (any minute now i'm going to bust out some hegel). most of the crab i've eaten in india (and also in some korean recipes) follows this principle*. then again maybe my indian crab experience is not representative--i haven't eaten too many south indian takes on it. *i also really enjoy takes on the classic bolognese sauce substituting crab for the ground beef-pork. first saw this on iron chef, tried it at home to good effect.

While the fruity and flowery whites with their sweetness like the Gwerts, reislings, fume blancs, the chennins etc are much touted with spicy cuisine I would be very grateful to all the knowlegeble wine folks out there,who are also familiar with Indian cuisine, to steer me towards some reds that my guests might enjoy. Thank you

Hi I just finished reading Flavours of Delhi. It was an interesting concept, though I found the descriptions too sketchy. Two points of note in the book - 1) Connaught Place persistently spelt as Connuaght Place 2) Description of Kachri as a dried melon, being used as a souring agent. To the best of my knowledge, and I do know about Kachris, they are small fruits (about the size of a large ber) that grow on climbers, in Haryana and Rajasthan. Both the fresh and dried kachri are eaten in different forms. The most delicious cooked chutney is made out of dried kachris and it is very popular in Haryana, though I haven't heard of it being eaten outside of the state. (It is also a bit of an acquired taste). Another thing I've heard described as kachri is by Punjabis. They refer to slices of baingan, dipped in a besan paste and deep fried, as Kachri. My question is, has anyone heard of a wild /dried or any other kind of melon called kachri? Or was it a factual error?

How do you cook foods that are ‘exotic’ (asparagus, leeks, etc) with an Indian flavour?

over on the u.k forum there's a discussion going on about a restaurant called the parsee. while the restaurant itself sounds very good, and i'd like to eat there when i'm next in london, i voiced some reservations about the spelling/transliteration "parsee". now i could be wrong but i've always thought that the favored spelling/transliteration in india, as used both by the community itself and those outside it, was "parsi", and that "parsee" with two e's, like "sati", spelled "suttee" or "khichdi" spelled "kedgeree" was a leftover of colonial spelling. this would seem to be borne out by the fact that if you google the word "parsee" it returns 16,000 hits (the first being for the restaurant in question), whereas "parsi" returns 144,000. on the other hand, monica's article about parsi/parsee food seems to use the spellings interchangeably. so which is it? and am i right to wonder about the spelling "parsee" in a restaurant in england?

I guess Suneeta has been working on her cookbook for upwards of 20 years. It is out now. I've done a bunch of recipes from it, and I know many of them from her cooking classes here in Houston. The book is excellent. I love the way the book is laid out, it is designed to make following the recipes fast and easy. There are three columns for each recipe, the left column has the measures listed in English units, the center column lists the ingredients, and the right column has the measures listed in metric units. The cooking instructions are excellent. The headnotes consist of information on the dish and tips for the dish. This is a cookbook by a teacher who knows how to put a recipe together. Here's the beauty of the book, by way of example. How many times have you seen a cookbook recipe that calls for, say, "1 onion chopped"? What size onion would that be, exactly? Here in Texas an onion can be pretty bid. In Europe, they aren't as big. What Suneeta has done is demystify the list of ingredients by using measures of cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons, or, metric weights. This is awesome! It makes the recipes foolproof. And it gives you a baseline for later changing the recipe up to suit personal tastes. I own 5 Indian cookbooks, and I have read quite a few more. But this is the one that I will default to. This book should be in every cook's collection. It is that good. I would recommend starting with the following: Chicken in Cashew Saffron Gravy North Indian Lamb Curry on Bread Whole Baked Masala Cauliflower Bell Peppers with Roasted Chickpea Flour Dhokla (a fast and easy recipe using cream of wheat that produces beautiful results) Split Yellow Peas with Tamarind Chutney Gena's Kababs (flavored with green onions, ginger, cilantro, crisp fried onions)

It's funny that I never thought about this until I had to eat at a distant relative's place recently. Most of the time, if I'm really hungry, I'll even eat things I really, really hate. And if the food is badly cooked, I can at least appreciate the effort. But this time the food was unpalatable. I've never eaten such badly cooked food or seen such indifference towards cooking the food. There was no thought, no care, no love put into the cooking and it really, really showed. The vegetables were water-logged, the dal was gloopy, the rice was badly cooked. And it wasn't even some difficult, fancy stuff - just ordinary,everyday fare. Most beginner cooks could do better than that. The cook in question must really hate cooking to murder food like that. Anybody with similar experiences?

Hi all. I am exploring and learning so much more about my own culture and cuisine -- its mind boggling. I recently came upon some very interesting articles and research as I was researching the history of wines in India.. the Soma etc. It is terrific reading and I want to read some more. There is only so much to be found here.. what shoould i be reading? What are some really good sources? People? that I can talk to.

I would be very interested in learning how chicken is prepared in the eastern Indian state of Bengal. Is it different from the rest of India.. if so how.. what are some of the unique dishes? Thanks for sharing

does anyone know how much dessicated coconut would approximate 1/2 a medium coconut's worth of flesh? the latter is the amount of coconut called for in a number of the recipes in the penguin kerala cookbook--but it is written for an audience that has access to fresh coconut as well as people/tools to cut and shred it. here in colorado i have neither. i assume though that i will be able to find shredded, dessicated coconut in grocery stores. which leads me to the second question: what does one do to dessicated cocount to prepare it for use in a recipe that calls for shredded, fresh coconut?

What brand of Indian condiments do you use? Sauces, chutneys, pickles. Is Patak's the best brand?